Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Kneazleless in Diagon Alley

The people stand like human statues, phones and cameras poised high in the air. Expectant fingers hover over buttons, waiting, waiting, waiting. Then it happens. A series of menacing growls followed by
quiet, followed by a monstrous bellowing roar; brilliant fire streams forth
from the mighty dragon’s mouth.

The statue-
like people frantically tap their buttons. The crowd sends up resounding cheers. Those who stumble
upon the scene by chance helplessly fumble with cameras but they are too late. They stand still, cameras poised and begin their
waiting. In fifteen minutes (more or
less) the whole scene will play out again.

If I was excited about Hogsmede, I was downright overwhelmed
by Diagon Alley. The enormity of it is
instantly immersive.

We traveled from Hogsmede to London on the Hogwarts' Express.

I was jumping out of my skin
with delight as the train pulled into Hogsmede Station. (The Hogsmede station
isn’t as impressive as the London station so all of my pictures are of the
London side)

The
windows inside of the compartment, both looking outside and looking into the corridor
are actually screens. As soon as the
train starts moving the show begins.

There are two different scenarios. One traveling from
Hogsmede to London, and one traveling from London to Hogsmede. I thought the
Hogsmede to London trip was the better of the two, so if you can only ride the
train once, I’d suggest going to Studios and riding the train to Islands of
Adventure.

The train is not to be missed. We road it three times and
even people who weren't Potter fans seemed delighted and impressed.

The train station on the London side is spectacular. You forget for a moment that you are in a theme park.

There are so many details. Some would
probably only be recognizable to fans.

Billboard Dumbledore stares at in the beginning of Half-blood Prince

They even have a street musician hanging out in regular
clothes playing just within the entrance (one time it was a violinist and
another time it was a saxophone player)

Parked just outside of the London station is The Nightbus,

which sits across from Number 12 Grimmauld Place.
If you wait a bit you can see Kreature peeking out from behind the upstairs curtain.

In order to enter Diagon Alley you must move behind a brick
wall. Then you will see the space where the bricks have moved away. There is a sound
of moving bricks, but the noisy crowd drowns it out. It's the only part of Diagon Alley that is a little underwhelming.

This section of the
Wizarding World is split into Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Horizont Alley
(see what they did there), and Carkitt Market.

There
are twice the amount of shops compared to Hogsmede, the most striking being
Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.

It wasn't as big inside as I had hoped, it's actually pretty cramped, but I think Fred and George would approve
of the staff .

The second store I was most excited to see was The Magical Menagerie.

Pure Kneazle

I was looking forward to purchasing a stuffed Kneazle (a pure kneazle, not a kitty kneazle mix like Crookshanks), but sadly they didn’t sell pure kneazles. They had
plenty of Pygmy Puffs.

I
purchased quite a few souvenirs at Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment.

We browsed around Madame Malkin’s Robes for all Occasions
(if only I was rich enough to afford Hermione's ball gown), Quality Quidditch Supplies, and of course Olivander’s.

If you are in Diagon Alley and you want to escape the
blazing sun, turn down Knockturn Alley.
It’s actually indoors, but the theming makes you believe you are
outside. It’s dark, the temperature is
kept cool, and the stores, especially
Borgin and Burkes’ are pretty spooky.

Vanishing Cabinet. You can hear a bird chirping inside.

We were fortunate enough to stumble upon what I now believe
was one of the first showings of the new puppetry show, The
Fountain of Fair Fortune (I didn’t get a picture because my
hands were occupied with ice cream). The show was absolutely beautiful. I was sad we never got a chance to catch a
performance of The Three Brothers which is also told on stage using stunning artistic puppets (cool puppets, not the sort that I am afraid of).

I was glad we caught a performance by Celestina Warbeck and the
Banshees. She was fantastic during her live
performance of A Cauldron full of Hot, Strong Love. I was totally geeking out.

We grabbed lunch at The Leaky Cauldron. I can’t express how great all of the staff
are who work in The Wizarding World. I
had a great uber fangirl Potter conversation with the girl who took our
order at The Leaky Cauldron. She was a fellow Ravenclaw.

I thought that the theming of The Leaky Cauldron topped the
theming at the Three Broomsticks, but as I said before, Broomsticks had the
better food.

I
got the cottage pie (it paled in comparison to Haddonfield’s British Chip
Shop's cottage pie which is heavenly).

Shannon
got the banger sandwich.

It wasn’t that the food was bad, it was fine, it was just very average. What was great was the
drink selection at The Leaky Cauldron.
I got a Tongue Tying Lemon Squash which was just the right amount of
tart and wonderfully refreshing. I might lose my Potter cred here, but if I must be honest, I liked it better than Butterbeer.

I wish
they sold the same drinks in Hogsmede at The Three Broomsticks,but you can
only get the lemon squash in Diagon Alley.

Our
main goal of course was to ride Escape from Gringotts.

On our first day we ended up using the single
rider line since the wait never dipped below an hour and a half. Using the
single rider line we only waited for about ten minutes ( I felt bad for the people in the summer who waited 4-6 hours in line to ride Gringotts) and we still rode
together. The downside is that you don’t get to walk through the bank and take
the elevator ride, so the next day we went to Gringotts first thing in the morning so
I could fan gush over animatronic goblins and Bill Weasly's office.It is amazing!

We only had to wait that time for about 25 minutes and then
we rode it a third time because it's a fun ride.

The beginning of the ride was my favorite. You are just a regular Joe bank customer taking a ride to your bank vault. Bad luck for you because you just happen to be in the bank
on the day when Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into Bellatrix’s vault. Your car is suddenly stopped by Bellatrix and
Voldemort who suspect that you are in cahoots with the trio. In order to
“persuade” you to cooperate, Bellatrix zaps your mine car and turns it
completely vertical with you facing forward staring straight down into a dark
void of nothingness. Your mine car gets zapped again and the car starts
falling straight down and for a moment you think, we are going to die, but then the roller coaster track banks and levels out. I am not a fan of roller coaster drops. I approved of
this one, it was extremely fun without being too scary. The majority of the
ride is more like a regular 4D simulator ride. Of course it wouldn’t be a
Universal simulator if you didn’t have a scene where it looks like you are
going to fall and hit the ground (all done with screens). Good thing Bill Weasly was there to save the
day (just like Spider Man and Optimus Prime) The ride continues to move through the
bank as you try to escape Bellatrix and Voldemort.
During one of the scenes I was seated in just the right spot
that when Voldemort walks up to the car it looked like he was walking right up
to me and talking to me. I got a little
freaked out. It was creepy, but fun creepy.
There is one more roller coaster part as the dragon, ridden by the trio,
pulls you to safety.

It is a fantastic ride, but I still liked Forbidden Journey
just a tad more.

Like a big city, Diagon Alley is filled with chaotic huslte and bustle. At times the crowd got a little overwhelming so we escaped for a bit to other parts of the park. It is almost impossible to get clear pictures through the swarm of the crowd and I can see the value of staying at one of the Universal resorts just to get a head start in Diagon Alley.

I enjoyed my time geeking out at The Wizarding World and at the time I thought three days was more than enough, but a month later, I must admit that I dream of more days filled with lemon squash and train rides.